Foldable clothes hanger



Oct. 26, 1965 J. P. HIGHTOWER FOLDABLE CLOTHES HANGER Filed Dec. 4, 1963INVENTOR JOSEPH PAUL HIGHTOWER ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,214,032FOLDABLE CLOTHES HANGER Joseph Paul Hightower, 423 Lively Drive, SanAntonio, Tex. Filed Dec. 4, 1963, Ser. No. 327,978 1 Claim. (Cl. 211-99)This invention relates to a hide-away clothes rack having ornamentalfeatures as well as utilization as a shelf.

The primary object of the present invention is to disclose a clothesrack having ornamental features.

It is another object of the present invention to disclose an ingeniousclothes rack with hanging facilities for clothes.

It is still another object of the present invention to disclose ahide-away clothes rack.

It is yet another object of the present invention to disclose aningenious clothes rack having a shelf.

These together with other objects and advantages which will becomesubsequently apparent reside in the details of construction andoperation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof, whereinlike numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the clothes rack of the presentinvention;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the clothes rack shown in FIGURE 1.

It will be appreciated from the drawing provided that the clothes rackof the present invention is an ingenious arrangement which folds downinto unobtrusive view being vertical with the wall on which it is hung.When in use, the top portion thereof folds upwardly and provides bothaccess to a clothes hanging arrangement and provides a shelf forparaphernalia such as hats and pocketbooks and the like. It will beappreciated that this invention may be utilized considerably inassociation with oflices or homes. As a matter of fact, it has beenfound that the terminology applied to it may be pict-u-robe which aptlyand succinctly describes the invention.

Now, turning to FIGURES 1 and 2 for a consideration of the presentinvention, reference numeral 71 refers to a frame of a clothes rackwhich is mounted to a wall by means of screws 82. The frame surrounds amirror 80. A framed picture portion 72, having a picture 81, is hingedas at 83 to the frame 71. When not in use, the frame 72 of the pictureportion of the device is in a vertical position fronting mirror 80 andis held close by means of latch 76 which is inserted in female portionopening 77. In order to retain the frame 72 in a horizontal position,knee brackets 73 are utilized which are foldable at junction pivot 73A.A clothes hanger 78 is pivotally mounted at 79 to the underside of frame72. The pivotal mounting of clothes hanger 78 is entirely conventionaland may be a ball-socket or knee-type pivot joint which will permit themanual pivoting of hanger 78 to lie parallel to the flat underside ofelement 72. Therefore, as frame 72 is moved from the vertical positionafter disengagement through its latch arrangement and is moved to ahorizontal position as shown in FIGURE 2, hanger 78 is permitted topivot downwardly by gravitational force. Additionally, hat hooks 75 arepivotally mounted in slots 74 of frame 71.

It will be appreciated that the present invention is an ingeniouscompact arrangement utilizable as a pictu-robe in any small or largeofiice. By providing mirror 80, the office help has easy access formeans of applying cosmetics and for properly clothing themselves. Whenframe 72 carrying the picture 81 is released to assume its verticalposition, the only portion visable is the picture 81 which accompanies adecorative feature in the office. When frame 72 is in a horizontalposition as shown in FIGURES l and 2, a shelf is provided upon whichvarious items of wearing apparel and the like may be positioned.

It will be further appreciated that more than one hanger 78 may bepivotally secured to the underside of frame 72 in order to provideadditional hanging space than that shown in the FIGURES 1 and 2provided. It may be that when more than one hanger is employed thedimensional characteristics of the pict-u-robe may necessarily have tobe changed to afford sufficient capacity for the device.

Without further analysis, it will be seen that the invention describedin detail in the above accomplishes the objects of providing a clothesrack which is both useful and ornamental and is known as a pict-u-robe.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles ofthe invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes willreadily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limitthe invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents maybe resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed is:

A wall mounted hideaway clothes rack comprising: a relatively thinrectangular frame having two long sides and two short sides, said frameadapted to be mounted upon a wall with said long sides horizontal, saidframe having a rectangular recess therein and an outwardly facing mirrormounted within said recess but substantially below the surface of saidframe; a thin rectangular cover having essentially the same dimensionsas said frame; said cover pivotally hinged at the upper edge thereof tosaid frame, said cover having a flat inner surface and an outwardlyfacing rectangular recess in the outwardly facing surface thereof, andan ornamental display mounted within said recess; a collapsible bracketmeans at each short side of said frame connected to both said frame andsaid cover, said bracket means adapted to support said cover in aposition perpendicular to said frame when extended and to permit saidcover to immediately overlie said frame when collapsed; at least oneclothes hanger pivotally mounted on the underside of said cover, saidclothes hanger adapted to pivot against the flat inner surface of saidcover and to lie within the recess of said frame when said coveroverlies said frame; at least one vertical slot having a keyholeconfiguration in the forwardly facing surface of a short side of saidframe; rod means to act as a hat hook pivotally mounted on said frame atone end of said slot, said rod means adapted to pivot to a positionperpendicular to said frame and to a position entirely within said slot;and cooperating portions of a latch means mounted on said frame and saidcover to retain said cover over said frame when not in use, whereby saidclothes rack when collapsed has the appearance of a conventional framedornamental display.

(References on following page) References Cited by the Examiner UNITEDSTATES PATENTS Schipkowsky 21 187 Shepard 21199 Patterson 2111.3 Keicher297145 Hall 29217 Poole 21199 Gustin 211--119 4 2,317,437 4/43 Botta 2111.3 2,778,705 1/57 Barker 312-313 3,086,657 4/63 Myers 211 1.3

FOREIGN PATENTS 5 198,734 5/08 Germany.

610,335 10/48 Great Britain.

CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner.

10 CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Examiner.

